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Employers: Make Telecommuting Work for Your Company
Tweet Share on Facebook August 18, 2011 Comment (5)These days telecommuting is such a common way to work that most people don’t bat an eye when you say you work from home. But there are plenty of horror stories, too.
As an employer, you can do plenty to make telecommuting work for your company. If you’re wading into this territory, consider these factors:
Benefits
For the company, having an employee work from home can reduce costs by lowering the amount of resources used in the office, as well as reducing overhead costs. Employees may become more loyal, and having the ability to work from home is a great selling point for new recruits. In many cases, employees will be far more productive without the distractions of the office and will be happy with a lower salary, which results in increased productivity for less money.
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5 Ways to Overcome Job-Search Frustration
Tweet Share on Facebook August 18, 2011 Comment (16)The job search can be incredibly frustrating. And if you’re not careful, that frustration can start to fester, taking control of your life and getting in the way of the effectiveness of your efforts.
Here are five ways to overcome that frustration:
Get angry
Have you ever felt negative about something and slathered it with a layer of positive thoughts, only to find those negative feelings come roaring up again like a volcano with even more force? If you have, you’ve experienced firsthand the limits of positive thinking.
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4 Networks Job Seekers Should Know About
Tweet Share on Facebook August 17, 2011 Comment (5)The Jobvite annual survey was recently released, reminding job seekers and trend-watchers about the continued importance of social networks. Jobvite polled more than 800 human resource and recruiting professionals in the U.S. Survey highlights:
• 89 percent will recruit via social networks this year
• 55 percent will spend more on social recruiting
• 64 percent use two or more networks for recruiting
• 78 percent expect increased competition for hires
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Are Your Skills Really Transferable?
Tweet Share on Facebook August 16, 2011 Comment (1)If I’ve heard it once, I’ve heard it a thousand times. You, the job seeker, announce with confidence: “I can do the job. I know I can. I just need someone to give me a chance.”
But in a tough economy full of qualified job seekers, skills don’t need to transfer. That’s because there are plenty of well-trained people with the right company background, certifications, and experience to meet and exceed the job requirements.
Those candidates don’t need training. There’s no delay in the new person’s affect on the department, and no risk for the hiring manager.
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Tips for Breaking Up With a Job
Tweet Share on Facebook August 16, 2011 Comment (1)Breaking up is never easy to do. Whether you're a 15-year-old boy who’s too scared to confront an emotionally-charged girl, or an adult suffering in a dead-end marriage, mustering up the courage and self-respect to make a change and improve your life is not always easy.
Leaving a job is difficult too.
There's the time you have invested; the fear of change; established relationships; a change in pay and benefits; and so on. In fact, when you add it all up, it's amazing that anyone makes the leap.
Leave a job with the same dignity and openness that you would exit any relationship. Expect feelings to be hurt. But if you have a plan and follow these tips, you’ll feel good about the break up:
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Get Rave Reviews from Your Boss
Tweet Share on Facebook August 15, 2011 Comment (3)Becoming your boss’s favorite isn’t about sucking up; it’s about consistently displaying work habits any boss will love.
Here are 10 habits that will earn rave reviews from your boss:
1. Have your act together. Stay on top of things, ensure your boss only has to tell you something once, don’t let things fall through the cracks, and generally be someone she can rely on.
2. Show your boss that she doesn’t need to follow up with you. When she assigns you work, it will either get handled or you’ll circle back to her for any follow-up needed. Give her the peace of mind of knowing that if she talks to you about it, she won’t need to remind you about it.
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5 Reasons You’ll Benefit from Helping a Mentee
Tweet Share on Facebook August 12, 2011 CommentWhether you’re a manager or plan to be a supervisor at some point in your career, you probably realize the importance of mentorship in the workplace. You may even have a mentor of your own whom you look up to, ask for advice, and count on for feedback on tough assignments and situations.
So why not consider becoming a mentor? Young professionals often need someone to guide them in the beginning of their career, particularly if they’re starting out at a large organization.
Here are some benefits of being a mentor:
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How to Get Your Resume in Front of the Right Person
Tweet Share on Facebook August 11, 2011 Comment (5)Job-hunting is serious business these days.
You need to make sure you’re getting your resume in front of the decision maker, but that can be more difficult than expected. Send resumes to a company generically, rather than to a specific person, and your resume could end up in the garbage. It’s well worth the time it takes to do the necessary research so you can write a targeted cover letter and make certain that your job application lands on the right desk.
Try these tips to increase your chances of the right eyes reading your resume:
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How Striving for Perfect Can Kill Your Career
Tweet Share on Facebook August 10, 2011 Comment (2)Are you a perfectionist? If so, you’re probably limiting your career’s potential. Pursuing perfection in all you do might seem like a good strategy for growing and thriving in your career, but except in rare circumstances (brain surgery, anyone?) it can actually have the opposite effect.
Here are five ways perfectionism can kill your career.
Perfectionism limits opportunities
The more important perfection is to you, the less comfortable you are with imperfection. The resulting feeling can range from minor irritation to downright pain. As humans, we’re wired to avoid pain.
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10 Ways to Annoy a Hiring Manager
Tweet Share on Facebook August 8, 2011 Comment (47)Want to annoy a hiring manager and lose out on the job? Here are 10 surefire ways to do it:
1. Ignore application instructions. Employers give specific instructions for a reason, so ignore them at your peril. Don’t send your resume through postal mail rather than applying online as instructed, ignore the request for a cover letter, or call to follow up when the ad says “no calls.” Showing you don’t pay attention to or don’t care about directions is a good way to take yourself out of the running.
2. Call to “schedule an interview.” Some job applicants end their cover letters by noting that they’ll call within a few days to “schedule an interview.” This is not a good idea. Job-seekers don’t get to decide to schedule the interview; employers do, and it’s overly pushy to pretend otherwise.
